Staff Reporter

>From films to soundtracks to piano recitals, Ryuichi Sakamoto has fingers in all sorts of pies – and every one of them seems to taste delicious. Except Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, writes Michael Quinn Pop star, actor, classical musician, opera composer, world music pioneer, techno innovator, Academy Award winner and, yes, mustn’t forget, fashion model […]

The coach of Italy needs a bed. Not as in a bed for the night; but a bed as in somewhere where he can lay down his Kiwi frame for the next two years. “And if I don’t get my bed between now and the time we go into final camp before the Six Nations, […]

STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Thursday 5.00pm. PETER Hain, Britain’s minister of state for Africa, reiterated his country’s commitment to strengthening ties with Africa and rebuilding the war-torn continent, but provided scant new detail as to how this would be done. Hain delivered what was billed as a “major announcement” on Britain’s policy in Africa […]

Adam Haupt Capoeira, Brazil’s beefy martial arts form, has an interesting history that takes one into Brazil’s colonial past. Its movements evoke its people’s African origins. Given its place in the history of the “new world”, it’s odd that two Swedes – Paul Blomgren and Billy Malm – are in South Africa to “re-introduce” this […]

Marianne Merten The University of the Western Cape has dismissed allegations of financial mismanagement against senior lecturer Dr Rose September after an internal investigation. “This matter has been investigated and is now closed,” said UWC rector Professor Cecil Abrahams. It was alleged that September had been paid twice for an overseas air ticket to attend […]

Mercedes Sayagues A broken jaw from a beating, hate mail, threatening phone calls and night visits by detectives from the criminal investigation department (CID) have not gagged Zimbabwe’s top stand-up comedian, Edgar Langeveldt. Bouncing back after seven weeks of absence due to a wired jaw, Lange-veldt reappears tonight (February 4) at Harare’s Book Caf with […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Thursday 9.00pm. NIGERIA confirmed their status as favourites to win the African Nations Cup with an impressive 2-0 triumph over Morocco on Thursday that sealed first place in Group D. Defeat proved particularly costly for Morocco as they were pipped for the second place in the knockout stages by Tunisia, who […]

Terry Pratchett, author of the humorous – and best-selling – Discworld fantasy series, tells Hamish Mackintosh about his computer habits When did you start using computers? In about 1982. I started with a Sinclair ZX81 which allowed me to do very primitive word processing. Next was an Amstrad CPC464 – the first model with an […]

Paul Kirk A week after Zulu chiefs met President Thabo Mbeki to ask for the proposed new changes in municipal demarcations to be put on hold, the King of the Pondos, Justice Mpondombini Sigcau, has called for “no changes” in the municipal demarcations in his area. Pondoland has seen exceptionally bloody faction fighting, and the […]

Marthali Brand It was to be the soap opera of operas in the capital of rugby, braaivleis en sonneskyn. And Madame Butterfly, at Loftus Versfeld “under summer skies”, lived up to all the hype. And Pretoria turned out with gusto – only a few unclaimed seats were to be found on the field. Even some […]

THE Eastern Cape farmer who was positively diagnosed with the deadly and contagious Congo Fever died on Thursday night. The 51-year-old farmer, Francois Retief of Murraysburg in the Karoo, was described as very fit but in Port Elizabeth’s Provincial Hospital. Health authorities quarantined anyone, especially relatives, who had contact with Retief and they are monitored […]

Melvyn Minnaar Lifestyle In a town like Franschhoek, where the tenuous Huguenot soul was sold out long ago to compliant Biggie Best tourism and big buck retirees, it’s easy enough to find a relaxing spot to sip an adequately-made hot-vineyard wine. To discover something a little more rewarding for body and spirit requires one to […]

Barry Streek Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana is to announce details of a major investigation into South Africa’s labour laws after President Thabo Mbeki’s opening speech to Parliament on Friday. The inquiry, to be conducted by legal experts, is unlikely to entail significant changes to the labour legislation adopted by Parliament since 1994. Its main […]

Jubie Matlou The African National Congress intends to kill the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) and take over civic politics as part of its drive to put its stamp on all levels of political life in South Africa. The ANC wants its branches to take up civic issues at local level in a bid […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kumasi | Thursday 12.20pm. AFTER Bafana Bafana 1-1 draw with Algeria on Wednesday night, coach Trott Molotto said his team “will go for the kill” against Ghana on Sunday. “You know we are already in the knockout stages. We are definitely going for the kill against the Black Stars,” Molotto said at a […]

Mail & Guardian reporter Liberian President Charles Taylor is suing the London Times for quoting a book accusing him of being a cannibal. The book, The Mask of Anarchy by Oxford- educated scholar Stephen Ellis, accuses Taylor of “indulging in human sacrifice and the ritualistic consumption of human body parts”. The Times article, which appeared […]

Luvuyo Kakaza Acclaimed actor and director John Kani, recently honoured by the Hiroshima Foundation in Sweden, this week shrugged off a challenge in letters to newspapers by actor Pieter-Dirk Uys to contribute his substantial prize to the cash- strapped Market Theatre, where he is artistic director. Uys said he was delighted that Kani had received […]

Fiona Macleod Mpumalanga province declared its first internationally protected wetlands on World Wetlands Day on Wednesday. The Verloren Vallei Nature Reserve, 10km north of Dullstroom, is the province’s first proposed Ramsar site. This means it will be recognised internationally as a wetland system of importance, and will be protected against degradation and development. “We started […]

An ANCproposal to scrap parliamentary interpellations has caused a controversy, report Howard Barrell and Barry Streek The African National Congress is proposing radical changes to the rules governing question time in Parliament which will cause a major row with opposition parties. The ANC is suggesting that the number of questions to Cabinet members should be […]

CONTROVERSIAL number eight AJ Venter, still caught in contractual wrangles with the Cats that may end in court, has been included in the Sharks Super 12 team to play Border in a pre-season friendly on Saturday. Venter will scrum down with other loosies Wayne Fyvie (captaining the Sharks) and Charl van Rensburg. Justin Swart is […]

Andy CapostagnoGolf The local golf tour winds down this week with the Stenham Swazi Open, an amalgam of amateur and professional golf which, rather confusingly, will be held at the Wild Coast Sun, some 700km from Swaziland. The reason for the venue switch is that bane of greenkeepers’ lives, fungus. The greens at the Royal […]

M&G Mail & Guardian reporters Financial adviser Magnus Heystek has withdrawn his R2-million defamation action against the Mail & Guardian, and has agreed to pay the newspaper’s costs. Heystek withdrew from the case against the M&G this week as the newspaper went to court to compel him to disclose documents relating to the case. It […]

Fiona Macleod Controversial wildlife dealer Riccardo Ghiazza was arrested this week on charges of fraud and falsely obtaining South African citizenship. Ghiazza (46), the man at the centre of the Tuli elephant furore, appeared briefly in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday for allegedly failing to declare he had a drug conviction in Italy when […]

Donna Block SHARE WORLD There are days when I really miss the action on Wall Street, the rush that comes with the execution of a great trade and the hustle and bustle of trying to stay ahead of the market. Then, of course, there are the days when the wild volatility that is characteristic of […]

NINETEEN soldiers have been executed for sedition or acts of banditry in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past week, judicial sources said on Thursday. Nine had been convicted and sentenced to death by a military court for murder and armed robbery and were executed in Kinshasa on Wednesday, court sources said. They included […]

Rupert Neethling “You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” – The Borg, Star Trek: The Next Generation South Africans who want an Internet dial-up account or who wish to switch to a different Internet service provider (ISP) are discovering that as far as the major ISPs are concerned, they have few choices. Six months ago, […]

Edward Helmore The music industry used to refer to music as “product”, implying something tangible, but the time is near when music will be called “content” – intangible, and entirely apt for something that exists only as digital code on the Internet. In two steps, the two most risk-averse and bureaucratic of the big five […]

Fiona Macleod The Medical Research Council (MRC) is setting up a new primate unit at Delft in the Western Cape to breed baboons for medical research. The council says it is no longer internationally acceptable to use primates caught in the wild for experimentation, and it is setting up the new unit for “scientific and […]

Peter Dickson A week after the government unveiled its controversial National Aids Council (NAC), Aids activists around South Africa have united online to form an alternative watchdog body, the Shadow National Aids Council (SNAC). “Every move, statement and omission will be monitored by SNAC,” outspoken Eastern Cape health official Dr Costa Gazi announced this week, […]

Angus Begg WEEKENDS FOR LOVERS by Bridget Hilton- Barber (Southern) ‘Stopovers are the one-night stands of travelling and an evening with Lord Fraser is one you won’t regret.” Far from an invitation to spend the night with an ageing, cross-dressing British Conservative Party politician who has fallen foul of the tabloids, this is Bridget Hilton-Barber’s […]

Shane Watson BODY LANGUAGE First there was Cindy, then there was Kate, now there’s Gisele. Gisele Bundchen, Brazilian model of the moment. Not just Vogue and American Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and W, all of whom featured her on their January covers, but every kind of publication has taken to Gisele like a Carlsberg in […]

Khadija Magardie CROSSFIRE The lead article in the Mail & Guardian (January 28 to February 3) on “Africa’s new slaves” demonstrated a one-sided view of the civil war in Sudan. The three crucial flaws in the article were Cameron Duodu’s failure to probe the role of Christian Solidarity International (CSI) in the alleged “slave trade” […]